Trump stuns Saudis by pinning nuclear deal to Israel ties

An agreement leaving more questions than answers. A similar plan had already been mooted under the Biden administration to pave the way for nuclear power stations to be built in Saudi Arabia. But in order to gain access to US civil nuclear technology, Riyadh would be required to normalise relations with Israel. It looked like that wouldn't be the case when the current US government announced the deal had been struck Wednesday night. But just hours later, the US president revealed a major caveat. Announcing on his Truth Social platform that the deal is subject to Saudi Arabia normalising relations with Israel by joining the Abraham Accords. Such a move would be historic according to the Israeli prime minister, but at this stage Riyadh has not confirmed anything of the sort. Neither Saudi Arabia nor the US have made public the text of the agreement, but it has raised fears in Israel that Riyadh will use a civil nuclear programme to develop weapons too. From the Israeli point of view, it affects the arms race, the nuclear arms race in the Middle East. It creates precedence about the proliferation of, or possibly proliferation of nuclear capabilities. Unlike the Biden plan, the Trump administration deal would appear to let Saudi Arabia enrich uranium while not requiring it to accept intrusive snap inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency. A concern since Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has repeatedly said Riyadh would develop nuclear weapons if its regional rival Iran does.